Electronic devices often include a display used to provide a visual representation of information to a user. For example, cellular telephones and hand held devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) usually include some type of display for providing a visual representation of information to a user. The types of information that could be represented on the display may include a large amount of information that is arranged in columns and rows. An example of such an arrangement of information would be a listing of person's names in a first column and an associated plurality of additional columns wherein each of the associated plurality of additional columns includes information related to each person's name, such as an address, a phone number, or a customer identification number. The arrangement of data in columns and rows may include a table of data.
In some of these electronic devices, the display is not large enough to display an entire length of a row of information including all of the columns for which a particular row includes information under. For example, a particular display may have enough capacity to display only two or three columns at any given time based on the width of the columns and other factors, such as the resolution and character size of objects being displayed by the display.
A capability for horizontal scrolling of the display in order to visually display columns that are included in a table but that are not presently being displayed on the display may not be provided on a particular device. For example, a device may include a scroll wheel that allows a user to scroll vertically up and down within a list or column of information being provided on a display. However, there may be no equivalent device provided for a user to scroll horizontally between different columns of data being provided on the display. In devices that do provide a specific device or a mechanism for horizontal scrolling or paging, it is often necessary to actuate a key or actuate an input on the display screen itself several times in order to scroll or page several times to get a particular column of data to appear on the display. The large number of required scrolling or paging operations that are often required may cause the user to lose track of their place in the table, and may require the user to repeat the series of operations to return to their original starting point in the table in order to re-orient themselves to the layout and position of the data being displayed.
In addition, the limited number of columns that may be displayed at any one time on a particular display may require a user to mentally track the relationship of the data associated with a particular row of data without the benefit to being able to view on the display a leading attribute that associates the data in a particular row. A leading attribute may be any data that relates the data within a particular row, for example a name. In a table having a plurality of columns, a particular column may include a listing of a leading attribute in each row, for example a person's name. Additional columns may include secondary attribute data, such as an address, a phone number, and customer account number, wherein each secondary attribute is associated with one of the leading attributes, and is located in a same row of a table as the associated leading attribute. In devices that have limited ability to display large numbers of columns, as a user scrolls or pages away from the column including the leading attribute in order to display columns that include the secondary attributes, the display may no longer include the column showing the leading attribute, and so the user is forced to try an remember, for any particular row, for example an address or a phone number in the particular row, what the associated client name was for that row.
In addition, the scrolling or paging operations may be difficult for users having poor or impaired motor skills, and it may be difficult for users with poor spatial visualization skills to plan movements along the columns and to mentally track the association between the secondary attributes to the primary attributes as the scrolling or paging is being performed. This becomes even more difficult if the scrolling or paging between columns is further combined with scrolling or paging between rows.